The present invention relates to a method for cleaning air and an apparatus therefor, and to a method for humidifying air and apparatus therefor.
Various conventional air cleaners utilizing fans and filters are known. The principle of these air cleaners is to make air pass through a filter compulsively using a fan so as to make the dusts in the air be captured by the filter, thereby cleaning the air. In most of the usual air cleaners, the fan and the filter are completely separated and wind made by the fan is blown to the filter. Japanese Laid-open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 8-206436 discloses an air cleaner based on a sirocco fan of which side wall is made of a filter so that air flow is made to pass through the filter from the inside to the outside thereof by rotating the impeller, thereby cleaning the air.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for clearing air and an air cleaner using the same, by which the air cleaner can be made more compact than the conventional air cleaners when the performances are the same. Another object of the present invention is to provide an air humidifier based on the similar principle to that of the air cleaner of the present invention, by which the air humidifier can be made compact.
The present inventors intensively studied to discover that by bending a filter into wave-shape and by rotating the filter it self, the filter serves as both blades of an impeller and a filter, so that the air cleaner can be made more compact than the conventional air cleaners when the performances are the same.
That is, the present invention provides a method for cleaning air comprising rotating a filter formed on peripheral portion of a disk such that the filter is formed along the peripheral portion of the disk so as to surround inside area of the disk, which filter is bent into wave-shape such that irregularities of the wave are formed in radial direction of the disk, thereby discharging air existing on the inside area of the disk to outside of the disk through the filter. The present invention also provides an air cleaner comprising a disk; a filter formed on peripheral portion of the disk such that the filter is formed along the peripheral portion of the disk so as to surround inside area of the disk, which filter is bent into wave-shape such that irregularities of the wave are formed in radial direction of the disk; and means for rotating the disk. The present invention further provides a method for humidifying air comprising rotating a filter formed on peripheral portion of a disk such that the filter is formed along the peripheral portion of the disk so as to surround inside area of the disk, which filter is bent into wave-shape such that irregularities of the wave are formed in radial direction of the disk, the filter retaining water therein, thereby discharging air existing on the inside area of the disk to outside of the disk through the filter so as to give the water retained in the filter to the air. The present invention still further provides an air humidifier comprising a disk; a filter formed on peripheral portion of the disk such that the filter is formed along the peripheral portion of the disk so as to surround inside area of the disk, which filter is bent into wave-shape such that irregularities of the wave are formed in radial direction of the disk, which filter retains water; and means for rotating the disk.
According to the present invention, an air cleaner having larger surface area of the filter per volume of the product (i.e., compact and having high efficiency of collecting dusts) than the conventional air cleaners in which the fans and the filters are completely separated, and than the air cleaner disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application (Kokai) No. 8-206436 in which an impeller is enclosed in a filter, can be attained.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.